I've been looking up ways to reduce weight on a rifle and I stumbled upon a process called "turning down a barrel." From what I was able to gather, it sounds like the barrel is sanded down so the barrel contour isn't as thick/heavy (please correct me if I got that wrong). Is it possible (and safe) to do this on an already chambered and installed factory barrel? It seems cheaper than buying a whole new barrel.

If you were to compare weight savings of turning down a barrel versus having flutes cut, which do you think would be the greater weight reduction? Which do you think is less likely to affect accuracy from an already chambered factory barrel?

Thanks for the input. I realize this question will be rather funny if I misinterpreted what turning down a barrel means.

Turning down a barrel means placing the barrel in a lathe and removing metal. As far as weight savings go, as in one process versus the other, that would depend on how much material you removed.

I've done quite a bit of recontouring over the years and there are just too many things that can affect the successful outcome for me to recommend it to my customers on an "as issued" factory barrel. But if you are so inclined to proceed, then find yourself a gunsmith who has a fairly good track record for doing this.

"Turning down" usually means lathe turning a smaller diameter barrel contour to remove metal. This has to be done slowly and carefully or the barrel will go spaghetti on you. I have heard of folks using a barrel spinner and a belt sander to remove the steps from military barrels. I don't think that is something I would do to a nice factory barrel. Both flutes and turning down can/will affect accuracy in some way. Weight reduction depends on contour selected and flute depth which also affects stiffness. The simplest/cheapest alteration is to shorten the barrel. This also increases stiffness, but will reduce velocity 30-50 fps/inch. The no cost method is to do 100 push-ups a day for a month.

It would take me all month to do the 100 pushups.....
Regards, Joe

Depending on how much barrel you have determines how much you can remove.
But in most cases the weight saved is not much nor really worth it.

Thanks for the input. The barrel I'm thinking of is the factory stainless one on my Howa in 30-06, in case that would help with judging weight savings. With scope and all it's around 8.5 pounds, a little chunky in my opinion. I'm planning to restock it as well, but getting a new featherweight contour barrel is hard to justify when I can get another Howa for the cost of the new barrel (and everyone loves a new rifle ). Hence looking at turning the barrel down/fluting it.